United States: Life-threatening temperatures and a dangerous weather front will strike the areas near the Rocky Mountains following the fatal weekend floods that took 10 lives in eastern US states.
The National Weather Service’s (NWS) weather prediction center forecasts that a wintry storm moving from the Central Plains toward the Mid-Atlantic region will strike this week.
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The northern areas of Montana are facing temperatures that will descend to -42.7C during the coming Tuesday before wind chill factors drop to -51C.
The weather service expects people in most of North Dakota, along with vast regions of South Dakota and Minnesota, to experience “extreme cold” warnings under wind chill conditions reaching -45.6C.
About the polar vortex
Pressure systems became active again this month during the 10th polar vortex event, which turned out to be the most extreme cold air blast of the season.
The Arctic cold seeped southward toward North America and Europe. A polar vortex describes the low-pressure system of cold air surrounding both poles while its counter-clockwise motion preserves cold air around polar regions.
The phenomenon frequently appears during winter months because it brings major Arctic air intrusion into the United States.
As per the statement by the NWS, the weather system “will produce a swath of both heavy and disruptive snowfall,” news.sky.com reported.
Additionally, it is also stated that “a bitterly cold air-mass containing dangerous wind chills temperatures looks to stretch from the Great Plains to the northeast” – where there is “high confidence for widespread, record-breaking cold” in the central states.
“Wind chills between -30F and -60F are expected across the northern Plains, lingering for multiple days,” NWS added.
“These extreme conditions can cause frostbite within minutes. Sub-zero wind chills will likely extend as far south as Texas, Arkansas, and western Tennessee and Kentucky,” it continued.
Several regions of the Rocky Mountains extending from Colorado to Washington received avalanche alerts as the Utah Mountains exhibited the most dangerous conditions.